MEXICO
IPS
By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY, Mar 21, 2012 (IPS) – Spiralling violence, demands for justice voiced by victims of child sexual abuse at the hands of Roman Catholic priests, and ordination of women priests are issues that, in the view of experts and activists, Pope Benedict XVI will not be able to evade in his visit to Mexico.
The pope “does not have a specific policy for different groups in society, as did (his predecessor) John Paul II, who had distinct ways of approaching young people, intellectuals and indigenous people, for example,” said Elio Masferrer, an expert at the National School of Anthropology and History.
Masferrer told IPS that the Church is turning away from a strategy based on addressing the needs and concerns of the Catholic grassroots social base, and reaching out instead only to the elite.
“This is a great weakness. The Church is in a state of paralysis. The faithful do not follow what the hierarchy lays down, and therefore the leadership has lost its power to influence the daily lives of Catholics,” he said.
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